Mother of missing paratrooper from Pskov division apologized to citizens of Ukraine: "He said he was on military exercises". VIDEO+PHOTO

Mother of paratrooper Ilya Maksimov, who presumably went missing during military operations in the Donbas, apologized to the citizens of Ukraine.

This was announced bySlon.ruciting the agency"Svobodnye Novosti", Censor.NET reports.

...

"If Ilya is guilty towards Ukraine and its citizens, I beg to forgive him. He is an army man who lives in accordance with military statute. If he is currently at your disposal, I'm ready to come over and pick him up. Forgive him, forgive me," Lubov Maximova said at a press conference in Saratov.

She also said that her son, being on contract-based service in Pskov airborne division, went for military exercises in a region bordering Ukraine, according to the official version.

"On Friday, Aug. 15, he gave me a call and said he was leaving for field exercises. He had been calling or texting every day. On Saturday the 16th, he called my sister. And on Aug. 17, I got a text message reading that everything was ok, but the cell phone charge was low, and that he was on maneuvers near Rostov," Maximova said.

A few days later Maximova got information from the Internet about possible death and capture of paratroopers. She addressed Volsk military recruitment office and got a following answer: "Your son is on exercises. You should not trust what you read in social networks. He's ok."

No new information about Ilya Maksimov was available from Stanislav Tkach, representative of military unit #74268.

...

On Aug. 21, Ukrainian journalists posted indirect evidence of presence of Russian troops in Ukraine -photos of documents, lists of soldiers, ammunition, and other items. Presumably they belonged to soldiers of the Pskov airborne division. Among the findings there was a driving license of Ilya Maximov.

Ilya Maksimov had an account in social network «VKontakte» (copy); it was last visited on Aug. 16.

Earlier, Russian journalists and bloggers noticed sudden halt in activity of "Vkontakte" accounts belonging to Pskov paratroopers. Blogger Victor Kadochnikov noticed that there have been no new entries registered since Aug. 15-16 in this actively updated group of accounts.

On Aug. 25 it became known that a ceremony of secret funerals of several paratroopers had been held near Pskov. Eyewitnesses reported that only close friends and relatives were admitted to the ceremony. Afterwards, "Pskov gubernia" published photos of two graves. On Aug. 26, much more photos from the cemetery in Vybuty village appeared in the media.

Information proving that Russian troops are involved in combat operations on the territory of Ukraine began to come up from different regions of the Russian Federation around mid- August. There is evidence of loss of paratroopers from Ulan-Ude, Republic of Dagestan, as well as of capture of soldiers from the 98th airborne division (Svirskaya), located in Kostroma.

Russian Ministry of Defense denies the participation of Russian military forces in the conflict in the Eastern Ukraine. On Aug. 26, the ministry stated that paratroopers from Kostroma, captured 15 kilometers away from the Russian border, had entered Ukrainian territory by mistake during field exercises.

All materials published on this website that cite Interfax-Ukraine news agency as a source should not be further copied and/or redistributed in any other form without written consent by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.